As Amazon has continued to grow as a retailer where you can get just about everything, the company has raised eyebrows with some of its bigger-ticket items. While many might ask why a person would ever want to shop for a $19,999.95 tank, people have an easier time wrapping their head around the company’s sale of prefab buildings that are either intended to serve as full-time residences or can be easily repurposed in that fashion.
While most potential homebuyers aren’t necessarily looking for the ease of one-click shopping or doorstep delivery when it comes to surveying available homes, they are looking for practical, affordable solutions, which appear to be more and more scarce as real estate prices rise. Amazon might not offer the same type of high-design prefab solutions that grace the pages of Dwell, but the products the company does offer still adhere to the same philosophy of simplicity, small footprints, and low-cost — many of which are selling points not just to cost-conscious home shoppers, but millennial and urban sensibilities as well.
The products offered by Amazon range from homes that embrace their industrial design wholeheartedly to other products that seek to offer the aesthetic of a rustic cabin.
As this Gizmodo review of Amazon’s offerings reveals, the sizes of the prefab offerings range from less than 200 square feet to a relatively spacious 1,000-plus, with some even offering a second story.
The interior and layout of most of these homes can generously be described as “efficient.” The below photos are taken from the first listing above, the $36,000 modified shipping container from MODS International. Shipping on this item (not eligible for Amazon Prime) will raise the effective price another $3,700.
For those who have felt as though they’re constantly running into brick walls when shopping the inventory of houses in their area, these tiny homes could be an unorthodox way to bridge the gap between one’s budget and the market. However, the cost alone of the home is exclusive of other significant costs, such as the price of the underlying land, site staging, and utility connections, which can be costly in remote areas.
Living in a converted shipping container may not be the future we envisioned for ourselves, but the prospect offers a practical solution not just for cost-conscious homebuyers, but also for programs to house the homeless and elderly. It’s unlikely that such efforts are buying structures through Amazon, but it’s nice to know that some form of housing, even if it’s not our dream home, is just a click away for all of us.
